That prisoners may read

IT was an emotional session when a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), Zeacheus Onuba Dibiaeze Memorial Library (ZODML), donated e-books and other library resources to the Ikoyi Prison for its inmates.

The inmates presented a drama on how cases are judged in Nigerian courts, with the accused condemned to life behind bars. One of them also provided music, singing a song titled: Freedom. The musician pasted papers bearing various inscriptions on his body. They include, affliction, suffering, sorrow and trouble. His lyrics said he was tired of government food, and missed his mother’s cooking. Some people in the audience shed tears.

ZODML’s donation of Prison Knowledge Centre, consisting of 500 e-books, dictionaries, and bibles was meant to help the inmates to develop their minds while in prison.

The NGO also donated copies of the Quran, encyclopedias, and Microsoft word office suite software, among others.

Its Project Facilitator, Mrs Lilian Esiri said ZODML was consolidating on the foundation laid by the Muharam Sisters Foundation Education Centre (MSFEC), which had donated a library to the prison.

She said ZODML aligned with the philosophy of Nigerian Prisons and correctional Service (NPCS), which she said is aimed at equipping inmates with values and skills that would help their re-integration into the society after their sentences.

“NPCS has as its philosophy ‘that treatment and rehabilitation of offenders can be achieved through carefully designed and well articulated administrative, reformative and rehabilitative programmes aimed at inculcating discipline, respect for law and order and regard for the dignity of honest labour’. ZODML aligns with this philosophy and is committed to channelling some of its resources to help with this realisation.

“The United Nations (UN) Office for Drugs and Crime has stated that ‘when released, often with no prospects for employment, former prisoners are generally subject to socio-economic exclusion and are thus vulnerable to an endless cycle of poverty, marginalisation, criminality and imprisonment. Thus, imprisonment contributes directly to the impoverishment of the prisoner, of his family (with a significant cross-generational effect) and of society by creating future victims and reducing future potential economic performance’.

“It is this cycle that ZODML is trying to break with the establishment of the Prison Knowledge Centre (PKC) which we are here to open. The PKC is a centre with seven computers and over 2000 volumes of books. Each computer comes equipped with more than 500 e-books, the Bible and Koran, Microsoft Office Suite, games such as chess and scrabble, dictionaries and encyclopaedias.”

On the cost of the project, she said, the organisation spent about N4 million raised from the public.

MSFEC’s Principal, Mr Ayodele Obarewo said the centre is open to interested inmates willing to study. He told them that there were teachers available to teach them. He also said that 43 inmates whose cases will soon be determined by the court would be allowed to sit for this year’s Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME).

“If they pass the exams, they would be allowed to attend the National Open University (NOUN), also situated in the area,” he said.

The Chief Registrar of Lagos State High Court, Mr Ganiyu Safari thanked the organisation for the gesture and enjoined the inmates to make a judicious use of the computers and developed their minds by reading.

This, he added, would provide them the opportunities to sit for public examinations.